How teen couple lived on the run in Chicago

Video: Michigan teens missing for days located in Chicago

Nearly two weeks ago, 14-year-old Braxton Wood and 13-year-old Jayden Thomas left their central Michigan homes, stealing Wood's mother's Ford Explorer and ran away. Their parents say they were going to go to different high schools and were upset.

Nearly two weeks ago, 14-year-old Braxton Wood and 13-year-old Jayden Thomas left their central Michigan homes, stealing Wood's mother's Ford Explorer and ran away. Their parents say they were going to go to different high schools and were upset.

Two young teens who ran away from their Michigan homes because their parents wanted them to spend less time together lived in an SUV in the parking lot of a Lakeview gas station, taking strolls by the lake and hanging out at a nearby Starbucks, according to police.

Braxton Wood and Jayden Thomas, both 14, spent almost two weeks living in a black 2005 Ford Explorer, covering the windows with cloth and, at one point, smashing in the back window when they locked themselves out. Braxton took the SUV from his parents to make the trip to Chicago, according to police.

By the time Chicago police Sgt. Tim Edeling tapped on their window Sunday morning, their vehicle was out of gas and they were hungry.

"We gave them Egg McMuffins from McDonald's," Edeling said. "The girl said, 'I could use a bath.'"

The man who tipped the police off to Braxton and Jayden's whereabouts, Uptown resident Mark Zipperer, said he could see suitcases in the front of the vehicle.

Braxton told Edeling that he and Jayden, who turned 14 on Monday, ran away from home because their parents didn't want them to date one another. Braxton told the sergeant that he drove straight to Chicago when they ran away Aug. 26.

Zipperer saw their parents' pleas on television before his usual Sunday morning coffee run. He took a look at the teens' faces, noting that their names were unique. Then he turned off the TV and started toward Starbucks with his dog and newspaper. When Zipperer walked outside, he saw Braxton's face again.

"I passed him on the sidewalk," Zipperer said. "And I made eye contact with him and I thought, 'Wow, he looks like that kid on TV.'"

After double-checking Braxton's picture online, Zipperer casually walked past the car parked at the station and noticed that the SUV's plates were from Michigan. That's when he dialed 911.

Edeling responded and tapped on the window. The boy and girl quickly admitted that they were the missing Michigan teens from the news, he said. The teens are from two towns about 16 miles apart in central Michigan and about 270 miles from Chicago.

"They wanted to spend a lot of time together," Braxton's mother, Sarah Kiley, told ABC. "To be that intense at 14, you encourage them to do other things as well."

The teens appeared in Isabella County probate court in Michigan on Monday morning, court administrator Lance Dexter said. They were both charged with one count of running away from home.

Both teens were released to their parents and have GPS tethers.

"There are a million horrible things that could have befallen them," Edeling said, "and there's a happy ending."

A burst of thunderstorm activity across the Chicago-area in mid-afternoon Sunday led to the collapse of a dome in northwest suburban Rosemont and the temporary evacuation of the music festival Lollapalooza in Grant Park downtown.